Retired ICE Agent Shares Story Of Murdered Partner And Opinions On The Wall

10:14 PM 01/11/2019 | Media

Mike Brest | Reporter

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A retired ICE special agent shared the story of his partner’s murder — and his thoughts on the border situation — during his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show Friday night.

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“Well, Tucker, I have to say this is personal. I have worked in Mexico. I have worked on the border. I was born and raised there. I was attacked and Jaime Zapata lost his life, Agent Zapata, right next to me, while we were on assignment in Mexico,” Victor Avila began. “I know that this is real and the crisis is real. The border wall is very much needed. This is a physical barrier that’s going to help our border agents down there.”

“So in the shooting you referred to, you were hit three times. You were shot three times by a member of a Mexican drug cartel,” Carlson responded.

Carlson followed up, “How do you, as someone who went through that, what’s your response when you hear members of Congress, congressional leaders say that there’s no crisis at all and we’re imagining it and, in fact, it’s racist to say there’s a crisis at the border. How do you respond to that?”

TIJUANA, MEXICO – JANUARY 11: A construction crew installs new sections of the U.S.-Mexico border barrier on January 11, 2019 as seen from Tijuana, Mexico. President Donald Trump is holding off from a threatened national emergency declaration to fund a border wall amidst the partial government shutdown. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Avila responded,

“The crisis is real. I lived it. I worked it. Especially the racist comment is just unreal. Mexico now is looking to start to control their own southern border by sending their own federal troops down to the Guatemala and Belize border because now they’re feeling the impact of the immigrants coming through their country. So are they going to be racist as well? So it’s just absurd to think that it makes it a racist statement because, or it makes you a racist because you want a wall. Let me tell you what is immoral. What is immoral is the exploitation of our asylum laws.”

President Trump visited the border on Thursday amid the partial government shutdown over funding for the wall. Trump explained on Thursday that he “almost definitely” will resort to declaring a national emergency to get the funding.